The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 01, 2009
Filed:
Oct. 06, 2006
Jack D. Harmon, Carmel, IN (US);
Mingshe Zhou, Norman, OK (US);
Jim Phillips, Mustang, OK (US);
Reny International, Inc., Anderson, IN (US);
Abstract
A method for protecting voltage regulator driver circuitry during a short circuit condition of an alternator field coil includes passively detecting a drop in field coil voltage during an on-portion of a duty cycle of the field coil voltage, wherein the passive detection of the drop in field coil voltage signifies an interrupt event. Responsive to the interrupt event, a logical state of a driver enable control signal is changed so as to deactivate driver circuitry associated with a switching device used to pass field current through the field coil, wherein the driver circuitry, when deactivated, prevents the switching device from passing current regardless of the state of a pulse width modulation (PWM) control signal applied to the driver circuitry.